KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday directed the health department to make at least 500 monitors and 200 ventilators available in Sindh apart from completing a 50-bed hospital in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and a 200-bed infection disease control hospital at NIPA latest by end of June.

“We have arranged Rs2.7 billion to upgrade the existing facilities and operationalise two new hospitals in the city and, hopefully, with their start the government would be able to accommodate a large number of patients, in case of further spread of the pandemic,” he said while presiding over a Covid-19 response meeting here at the CM House on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Health Secretary Zahid Abbasi, Dr Abdul Bari, and other relevant officers of the health department.

Murad Ali Shah was informed that in 10 different hospitals of the city 131-bed ICUs and 174-bed HDUs had been established. At present 61 ICU beds and nine HDU beds are vacant.

It was also decided to expand the capacity of the ICUs and HDUs. Isolation bed facilities existed in 21 hospitals located in the province. They include the Karachi Civil Hospital, Trauma Centre, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Lyari General Hospital, Services Hospital, Indus Hospital, NICH, SIUT, AKU Hospital, Ziauddin Hospital, LUH Hyderabad, Civil Hospital Khairpur, Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana, district headquarters hospital Kotri and Indus Hospital Badin.

699 more people test positive for coronavirus, six die

At present all these hospitals have 224 ICU beds where 186 additional beds would be added. These hospitals have 268-bed HDU facilities and they would be given additional 268 beds. Similarly, these hospitals have 1,143-bed isolation facilities to which 898 beds could be added.

The chief minister was told that 30 monitors, six new ventilators had been provided to the Civil Hospital Karachi. Work on piped oxygen in medical 1 and 2 wards and surgical 1 and 2 wards had been completed while negative pressure piping of surgical ICU, which would have the capacity of 27-beds, had also been completed.

Besides, 85-bed medical wards 1 and 2 would be made functional by providing them 60 more monitors. Similarly, surgical 1, 2 and 27 ICU and 53-bed HDU would be made functional by providing them 23 vents and 53 monitors.

The chief minister was told that the structure of the 50-bed hospital in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, opposite Karachi University, was ready. At present, an oxygen pipeline was being laid and work would be completed by the end of this week, he added.

On recommendation of the health department, the chief minister approved Rs95.7 million for the purchase of equipment such as an ABG machine, BIPAP machines, four ventilators, 40 monitors, two portable suction machines, one portable X-ray machine, two ECG machines, 30 syringe pumps, 30 infusion pumps, three crash trollies, two defibrillators, two portable monitors, 35 beds and a 500-kVa generator.

Mr Shah gave four to six weeks to the health department to make the hospital functional and report to him.

The chief minister was informed that the 200-bed Infection Disease Control Hospital at NIPA was being developed with high flow oxygen and intensive care unit. It is a three-storey building. The structure of the hospital is ready to shift and necessary installation and fixing of hospital equipment had been started.

Mr Shah directed the health department to make a 54-bed ground and first floor functional within the next five weeks.

The private hospitals have been directed to expand their ICUs and HDUs as per government request. The Sindh chief minister said that over Rs2.7bn had been released to purchase equipment to upgrade the existing facilities.

Covid-19 situation report

The coronavirus local transmission has added 699 more patients to the provincial health service system, lifting the tally to 24,206 patients while six more patients died in the last 24 hours.

In a statement on Wednesday, Syed Murad Ali Shah said that during the last 24 hours, 2,177 tests were conducted against which 699 patients were detected. This was 31 per cent result of the tests, which is comparatively high, he said.

He said six more patients died, taking the death toll to 380 which constituted 1.56pc of the total patients. He added that 235 patients were in critical condition, of them 42 had been put on ventilators.

According to the statement, 14,556 patients were under treatment — 12,836 at home, 793 in isolation centres and 927 in different hospitals. Some 755 patients have recovered and the number of patients recovered so far had risen to 9,270, showing a 38.3pc recovery rate.

The CM said that out of the 699 new cases, 559 belonged to Karachi. District East has 174 cases, Central 125, South 99, West 56, Korangi 50 and Malir 33.

Mr Shah said Ghotki district had 24 new cases, Sukkur 11, Larkana 10, Mirpurkhas seven, Jacobabad and Badin six each, Hyderabad five, Jamshoro three, Shikarpur four, Khairpur and Thatta two each while Dadu, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Shaheed Benazirabad and Tando Mohammad Khan have one case each.

The chief minister once again urged the people of Sindh to stay at home, observe self-isolation and not to crowd markets, otherwise the situation would be impossible to control.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2020